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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22393228">curse/blessing</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnyidiot/pseuds/sunnyidiot'>sunnyidiot</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Everyone Is Gay, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:34:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,652</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22393228</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnyidiot/pseuds/sunnyidiot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>- So, you want to date Taeyong, - pushes Doyoung, he looks more focused now; Johnny finds it weird.<br/>Are people supposed to be on such great terms with their exes? Everyone seems awfully fond of Taeyong.</p><p>-<br/>Johnny sleeps with his ex's ex, there is more to it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lee Taeyong/Suh Youngho | Johnny</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i haven't written anything remotely lenghty in english since i dropped out of my eng.lang&amp;lit program 3 years ago, so i'm kinda rusty, forgive me.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>
  
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  
</p><p>Johnny tiredly rolls over on his bed leaving his phone charging on the nightstand. He is tired, he is hungover and he apparently just got himself into some kind of a predicament with his ex and his ex’s ex and his best friend who is also his ex’s ex’s ex. He should have just stayed in Chicago.</p><p>He can hear his flatmate cleaning the living room after yesterday’s party and he probably should get up and help him. So he promises himself just five more minutes of self-pity and then he’ll totally go and help Doyoung at least clean the kitchen after yesterday’s drunken popcorn disaster. So when his door opens exactly three minutes after he’s made this agreement with himself he feels betrayed.</p><p>"Hey! Ever heard of knocking? I could have been naked! Or had someone here!" Johnny automaticly brings his duvet closer to himself.</p><p>Doyoung doesn’t look impressed. He’s fully dressed, is holding a broom in one hand and generally looks better than expected from someone who’s been drinking till 4 in the morning.</p><p>"Taeyong has left, like, an hour ago. Stop being useless and go sweep the floor in the kitchen while i go grocery shopping."</p><p>"You know Taeyong???"  Johnny perks up on his bed, suddenly interested.</p><p>"Everyone knows Taeyong, Johnny. We also used to go out in my first year."</p><p>"YOU WHAT???" Johnny all but jumps from his bed. Doyoung shrugs and thrusts the broom handle into his hand:</p><p>"Sweep first, talk later," he leaves Johnny in his bedroom and goes to put on his shoes: "I don’t know why you are acting so surprised, Johnny" he calls from the door and then just leaves.</p><p>Johnny stares at the broom in his hand and just sighs. Jaehyun sure wasn’t lying about how close gay community was here.</p><p>+++</p><p>An hour and a half later Johnny finds himself in the kitchen, eating cereal that Doyoung just brought from the grocery store. He feels much more alive and ready to face the world after his shower. Doyoung nonchalantly sits in front of him. He is as much of a mess as he usually is, which, admittedly, isn’t much. “This fucker has his life together” Johnny thinks. And he really does. He is graduating next year but there are already some places that want to hire him and Johnny is kinda jealous. He is also jealous that Doyoung apparently used to date Taeyong for a whole semester two years ago. And by the way he says it Johnny feels like this is some kind of a record.</p><p>"So, about the whole Taeyong thing…" he starts.</p><p>"Oh, don’t worry, Jaehyun has already texted me everything," Doyoung shrugs. He looks kinda smug but also kinda like he is pitying Johnny.</p><p>"He did? This f…"  Johnny trails off and stares into his now empty bowl.</p><p>"Hey, don’t curse at my boyfriend, you know he doesn’t keep any secrets from me," Johnny shrugs knowing exactly what kind of secrets Jaehyun keeps from Doyoung. That kind of secret where he made a copy of his apartment key a month ago and had been bringing it with him everywhere but hasn’t given it to Doyoung yet.</p><p>"So, you want to date Taeyong," pushes Doyoung, he looks more focused now; Johnny finds it weird. Are people supposed to be on such great terms with their exes? Everyone seems awfully fond of Taeyong. Something very suspicious is going on here, but he doesn’t interrupt Doyoung, who goes on to rant about how he needs to be serious about it.</p><p>"I don’t know, Do. He seems cute and nice and I would love to get to know him."</p><p>Doyoung looks at him for a second, then smiles:</p><p>"You are not into him because of the whole “curse” slash “blessing” thing?"</p><p>Johnny feels utterly confused: firstly, Doyoung literally just said “slash” in the verbal conversation, and, secondly, Taeyong can curse people?!</p><p>"He doesn’t curse people, idiot!" Johnny tries to protest and call for some respect for the elders but gets cut off: "He is kinda cursed though."</p><p>And this is how Johnny learns about Taeyong’s exes. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>nothing is happening but everything is going somewhere.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  
</p><p>Doyoung had been really vague about Taeyong’s “curse” but at the same time he repeated Jaehyun’s advice and just told Johnny to talk to Taeyong and figure it all out for himself. The only real bit of information Johnny got was that all Taeyong’s exes managed to stay friends with him, that’s why Doyoung still had his number and graciously shared it with Johnny. Feeling like the weight has been lifted off his shoulders after Taeyong agreed on a “date”, Johnny locked his phone and decided to watch something on Netflix. Talking to Ten can wait.</p><p> </p><p>And wait it did. It went from “later” to “likely never”. And by Monday Johnny completely forgot he even wanted to talk to Ten. He was so elated by the fact that he’s going out with Taeyong later in the week that anything else just didn’t seem important. Taeyong was important! He was well-known across all faculties, being an excellent student, being kind and helpful, being unbearably handsome and also being on the university’s dance team. Which was impressive in itself because his major was far from dancing or performing arts in general. Johnny wasn’t even sure what it was that made him interested the most, maybe he had a thing for dancers, maybe he had a thing for people who volunteer to help freshmen in their free time, or maybe he was into really cute guys with really cute smiles. It felt like the hardest part was out of the way, but really, figuring out time and place that worked for both of them was much harder than one could expect. Taeyong was constantly busy with his schoolwork or with his small group of freshmen or with his friends. He seemed really shy when Johnny had just met him but he had so many friends… much more than Johnny himself had and he was known in his home town as an “outstandingly outgoing” guy.</p><p>Finally, they settled on Thursday afternoon in a cafe close to both Johnny’s place and a building where Taeyong had his last class for a day. Days leading to their not-date Johnny felt so excited that it seemed to rub off even on Doyoung. He was humming along to some song while preparing their dinner on Wednesday night and seemed just generally more cheerful. Johnny sat there, keeping his hands to himself, trying not to disturb him while he has a knife in his hand, Johnny learned the hard way not to mess with Doyoung while he is concentrating. Instead of sticking his nose in every pot and pan he just scrolls instagram on his phone, looking for some inspiration for his new insta theme (it’s been brown and grey for a long time now, maybe he should try black and white next). He keeps scrolling until a familiar account pops up: he and Ten still follow each other on social media, but don’t interact much anymore. In the picture Ten is somewhere eating dinner and the picture certainly was taken by someone else there with him. Johnny searches for any negative emotion inside himself but doesn’t really find anything. Excitement for tomorrow is much stronger than any regrets about his past relationship. It’s good, right? He is ready to ask Doyoung about it but brief look in his direction confirms that he is still wielding a knife, so Johnny saves this thought for later. With nothing better to do he clicks on Ten’s profile and starts scrolling.</p><p>Ten posts a lot; he is artistic and social, he always has new pictures to share, they even initially bonded over having somewhat matching instagram themes, which seems ridiculous now. Somewhere around “7 month ago” pictures of Taeyong start to appear. Him and Ten in the dance studio, Taeyong and Ten and someone who looks vaguely like Jaehyun but with pink hair. Johnny looks closely and it actually is Jaehyun with only a half of Doyoung visible at his side. There are more pictures of people Johnny knows from hanging out with Jae and Doyoung, but he’d never met them while he was with Ten, which is weird, those pictures make it seem like they were great friends.</p><p>“Dinner is ready!” Doyoung startles Johnny, placing a couple of dishes on the table and laughs when he almost jumps in his seat, trying to cover his phone screen, “what got you so engrossed in your phone?”</p><p>“Nothing!” Johnny can’t even convince himself with how fast he says that, so no wonder Doyoung lifts up his eyebrows and wrestles his phone out of his hand. After looking at the screen his smile dims, but he just puts the phone on a counter and keeps serving their dinner. Sometime later, when they are pleasantly full with food he finally addresses the “situation”: “Don’t think too much about it. Actually, don’t even go on that date if you gonna think of Ten” he seemed to become agitated towards the end, Johnny immediately felt the urge to convince him that he was not in fact thinking about Ten but about Taeyong.</p><p>“I’m not gonna go on a date and think about my ex, Do”</p><p>“Are you sure? I’d advise you don’t bring Ten up with Taeyong at all. With all this…” Doyoung trails off and just looks around their kitchen.</p><p>“With all this what? Was their breakup really bad? With the way you and Jae talk about him it seems like he managed to stay friends with everyone”</p><p>“He did… but… I don’t think I should be the one to tell you about their personal lives. Go on that date, woo Yong into dating you and if you are still interested he’ll probably tell you everything: it’s a long story”</p><p>Once again talking to Doyoung just leaves Johnny more confused than before.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>here it is. the pacing is weird but i don't want to mess up the order in which things appear. <br/>also, do come tell me what you think is the "secret".<br/>i feel like it's both not intriguing enough and not interesting in the end. lol.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>you can find me on twitter and curious cat @le_frog_<br/>there is no real scedule for updates yet, but i'll try</p></blockquote></div></div>
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